Sociology's revenge: Moving to Opportunity (MTO) Revisited

Neighborhoods remain the crucible of social life, even in the internet age. Children do not stream lectures — they go to school. They play together in parks and homes, not over Skype. Crime and fear of crime are experienced locally, as is the police response to it. But wide income gaps and America’s legacy of racial segregation result in wide differences between neighborhoods on a range of measures. Two major new studies from Harvard economists Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren show that neighborhoods matter not only for daily life, but for the life chances of the children raised there.